A Christian street preacher was arrested and locked in a cell for telling a passer-by that homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of God....Dale McAlpine was charged with causing “harassment, alarm or distress” after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of “sins” referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships.
I can understand wanting to arrest street preachers. Those of us who have been annoyed by the rude screaming street preachers in Fort Worth have often wished there could be some law against being that annoying in public. But this charge is nonsense.
St. Albert disapproves of bad preaching styles.Apparently, you can even be arrested for what you said in a one-on-one conversation:
Mr McAlpine was handing out leaflets...when a woman came up and engaged him in a debate about his faith...after the woman walked away, she was approached by a PCSO who spoke with her briefly and then walked over to Mr McAlpine and told him a complaint had been made, and that he could be arrested for using racist or homophobic language.
You might not like the message this guy was peddling or his questionable method. You might think he is hateful or bigoted, and you are entitled to that. But it should not be against the law to believe such things and to talk about them. I would not be upset if they had arrested him for bothering people with his street preaching - that sort of thing is annoying - but to arrest someone for explaining their beliefs is terrible. Where does such a thing stop? How would people like it if a Baptist took office and arrested everyone who took God's name in vain? (Just for the record, fellow baptists, that's a really dumb idea.)
The only good thing about this is that it happened in England, so my tax dollars didn't contribute to it.
8 comments:
I don't understand; the GLBT non-discrimination people told me that this sort of thing couldn't happen.
Only a true narcissist would believe he could go into a community with a strong gay presence, openly chastise people for their lifestyle choices, and expect no consequences. I'm not saying he should've been arrested, but just because you have the freedom to do something doesn't make it a good idea.
I never said it was a good idea. I think most street preachers are annoying.
I would just like to point out that there are two types of street preachers. There are those who go only to cast stones at others and point at specific people in the crowd... they are annoying and a black eye on the group as a whole...
then there are those who merely preach the Word. The Law and the Gospel and plead with any listening to give thought to what they've said and examine it to see if it is truth.
Street preaching as a whole is not only a good idea but a Biblical one. John the Baptist preached in the streets, as did Christ Himself and countless others. In church history Jonathan Edwards took to the housetops to proclaim the Word of God and God used his efforts to cause revival in America.
@Justin It isn't narcissism that drives the true Christian to take to the streets for witnessing one on one or open air preaching.
It is obedience. Mark 16:15.
It isn't about openly chastising people, that it wrong and judgmental. I cannot go there to judge, I don't go there to judge. I go to warn them of the God that will judge and whether or not they choose to believe He is real or His word is true, He is and He has guaranteed that judgment will come.
Hebrews 9:27 - It is appointed for a man once to die and then the judgment.
We go into openly hostile places because we don't fear those who can kill the body, only the One who can destroy the body and soul.
We go, or at least we should go, because we have a genuine and sincere concern for their eternal salvation. Done rightly, the Law and the Gospel preached in the open air or shared one on one is a message of Love. That God's justice demands wrath for sin, but God's love provided a way to be forgiven of those sins.
I don't know what this man's message was exactly... he may or may not have been preaching the Word rightly... but he shouldn't have been arrested because of the 1st Amendment... but that is what the LGBT community is using this hate speech law to do in America, make it illegal for people to say things that they don't like.
Now, in premise I agree wholeheartedly with the hate speech law. Hate is a vulgar thing and should be dealt with. But this law treads a fine line between moderating the propagation of hate, and the freedom to say what we want.
When I personally open air preach, I really don't spend time at all on the gay issue. All people are law breakers of a Holy God. Be it through their lying, their blaspheming, their fornication, their idolatry, or their hateful murderous ways... no need to isolate one over the others. Preach the Word rightly and let God convict.
Jason, you're right. Street preaching is not a bad thing, in itself. I just haven't ever seen it done well, and the whole thing has become a joke because of the nuts who give Christianity a bad name.
Jason, I never said street preaching was narcissism. I said that going into an area where your message is clearly not welcome and then hiding behind your "rights" is completely narcissistic, i.e. the idea that this guys views were somehow so important and so sacred that there would be no consequences for pushing them in other people's faces. I see this same thing happen all the time with people who hate cops (and believe me, I am no fan of cops myself)- they end up getting arrested on some BS charge because they just had to exercise their rights. You might ultimately be right in the end, but most of the time it's not worth it.
Adam, I agree completely... so many nuts out there... like the folks at Westboro Baptist... spreading their hate message...
The most disturbing thing about this case is that this man, knowing the law, purposefully said nothing at all about homosexuality during his preaching. Nevertheless he was approached by police who pressed him for his beliefs on the subject and subsequently arrested him.
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